Toys R Strictly Gender Specific
by Laura Woodhouse // 16 December 2007, 18:55
Anyone else sick of seeing the Toys R Us Christmas TV advert for a toy kitchen set featuring three girls playing at cooking 'just like Mum'?
A quick newsflash for the Toys R Us adpeople: this is 2007. Dads cook too. And boys may very well enjoy making plastic vegetable stew as much as their sisters. In fact, their sisters might not like cooking at all! Even if the kitchen set is pink and possessed by the spirits of various beautiful pink Disney princesses...
I would, however, like to think that any child - whatever their gender - would have the foresight not to make pink and blue devilled eggs. A bold uniting of stereotypes in an attempt to make us question early gender socialisation, or simply a crime against cookery? You decide.
Check out Rosalyn Ball's 2006 article Dreaming Of A Pink Christmas for more gender specific toy joy.
Photo by the_moog, shared under a Creative Commons License.
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